The storage of water can be a particular problem in urban environments. Many urban environments have developed in coastal areas where there is a relatively high rainfall. If the run-off from these urban areas in the form of urban stormwater could be captured and reused, the need to build more dams could be delayed or removed altogether.
It is common for water catchments to be in the form of a dam across a river valley. These dams are very expensive to construct and often consume large amounts of valuable agricultural land. Such dams also destroy all pre-existing life in the river valley and the plant material captured within the artificial lake can result in the generation of significant amounts of greenhouse gases from decomposing plan material. Although in some cases this greenhouse gas production can be offset by the production of hydroelectricity, generally speaking it is not desirable to build dams.
In many geographic locations it is common for a source of fresh water to be located relatively close to an urban environment but this source of fresh water may not be suitable for capture by a conventional means such as a dam. For example, it is common for a fresh water source to be located within 100 km of a denser urban area.
It would be advantageous if there was a manner in which these currently unutilised sources of water in or near urban areas could be captured and utilised for the provision of water to these urban areas.